No fear, just fun: Cam John's mindset ahead of major debut

After a brilliant Australian summer full of wins, Cam John will make his major championship debut at Royal Birkdale armed with key information to make it memorable.

Cam John is removing all the pressure he could put himself under ahead of his major championship debut at Royal Birkdale.

It is, after all, the recipe he used to earn his place in the Open Championship via a podium finish at the Singapore Open in April.

Enjoyment while playing, relishing every opportunity the 27-year-old Victorian has created for himself over what was a barnstorming home summer has been key and John doesn’t want to move away from that outlook despite the occasion.

John arrived in the UK a week before his first Open appearance, having honed his game at home in Melbourne, even joining in the club comp at Peninsula-Kingswood, which he won.

He was linking up with a friend to play courses around Birkdale, to get used to the surrounds, to also distract himself a touch from what was coming.

John, ranked 256th in the world, was handed more time to think about his first shot, too, given a late afternoon tee time for the opening round, in the third-last group out at 3:59pm.

Before jetting off, John told Golf Australia magazine that it was hard not to think about the significance of playing in The Open for the first time, throwing his mind forward to what a good result could mean for his immediate career.

However, he also said he knew that was not what had been working for him, and the pre-tournament distraction of catching up with an old mate, getting around courses that weren’t Royal Birkdale, enjoying his trip, would leave him best placed for success.

“I mean, it's probably understandable and pretty hard to not think about the possibilities,” John said.

“But at the same time, if it goes well, it goes well and if it doesn't, I just want to go there and enjoy the fact that I get to play and some goals that I probably have are more based around the enjoyment and the fun side of the opportunity that I have than the actual performance side.

Having fun on course with his caddy has helped Cam John be successful. (Photo by Jason Butler/Getty Images)

“We all go there and are trying to do our best and no one's going to go out there and decide, 'Oh, I just don't want to play here.'

“So it's just about enjoying each moment and a bit similar to when I first got into some of the international series events in Asia; I just kept saying to my caddy, Matt, that we always play our best golf when we're enjoying ourselves and having fun.”

While most of the field at The Open has been plugging away in recent weeks, traversing the globe playing in the U.S then in Scotland last week, fine-turning their games in play, John relished being at home in Melbourne.

He did his grinding over the summer, which produced a brilliant run of results and a renewed confidence in his game.

In 16 events on the PGA Tour of Australasia, John secured a remarkable three wins, at the Queensland PGA, the Vic Open and finally the National Tournament in March.

There were another four top-10 finishes in there as well, results which entered him into two Asian Tour events in Japan then Singapore, which produced two more top-10 finishes, including runner-up at the Singapore Open, which locked his Open spot.

Then three straight missed cuts, which included falling ill in Morocco, were the signal for a rest, and John suggested that decision to slow down ahead of his major debut could even be an advantage at Royal Birkdale.

“I feel like I have been exhausted for a while. I think I'm in my third week at home now and it's been awesome,” he said.

“I played obviously a lot of golf through our summer. And then it's interesting; I was chatting about this yesterday to my wife Georgia. I just said the game feels really good right now.

Cam John won the National Tournament in March to end a brilliant home summer.

“Probably if you asked me five weeks ago, I might not have said the same, but when you play so many events in a short timeframe and then you sort of back it up with from The National tournament [which he won], I went to Japan straight away, played solid, kept things going, then obviously played well in Singapore and played my way into The Open.

“And then it sort of felt like the time I normally have off to recharge the batteries, I didn't really get.

“So I feel like I can only say from a personal standpoint that I feel like it's maybe a bit of an advantage. I get to go over there … play some golf, just almost suss out the area, have a whole week of catching up with a mate who I haven't seen for a while and just try to make the whole trip as fun as I can.

“And then hopefully the good golf follows along with that.”

While the time at home was spent refreshing, it also came with those unavoidable moments where John pondered the career opportunity he was being presented with, as much as he tried to sideline those thoughts.

“There is an opportunity there to change the course of your career over the next year or two or however many,” John said.

“But at the same time, it's also just being really focused on what you're doing.

“If I'm sitting around home, I probably think about it more than anything, but if I'm out practising and playing, just focusing on what I'm trying to do that day, then I feel like it disappears a little bit.

“So it's been interesting to navigate my way through the last couple months, for sure, since knowing that I'm in.”

John has mined the Open experience of fellow PK member Marcus Fraser, who played the event six times, as part of his preparation, aided also by the fact he’s played a “fair bit” of links golf, albeit in Scotland primarily and as an amateur.

He said he’d take a bit of a pot luck attitude to practice rounds at Birkdale as well, rather than dial his efforts in on lining up with anyone in particular to pick their brains as well.

“If I saw an empty spot in Scotty Scheffler or Rory's group, I'd probably put my name down in there,” he said.

“I think I'm just going to try to take in as much as I can. Sometimes when I prepare my best, I'm just fortunate that I go out for nine holes and I'm just on my own and I just feel like I can do what I need to do.

“So I'm not too fussed around who I practice with or play with.”

Looking for enjoyment rather then getting lost in the opportunity, chilled about practice and preparation, could all seem a bit casual for a major championship debut. However, John is no 21-year-old first-timer; he’s been around for a while, he knows that golf is a “hard game” even for those as good at it as he is.

So he’s removed the pressure, as much as he can, confident that his best golf will come from that and take him to where he needs to be.

“I feel like I've been in position multiple times to win on different tours. And it's something that if it happens for you in the moment, then it happens for you,” he said.